Gov. Quinn Still Feels The Heat Over Casinos

By Soyoung Kwak in News on Dec 11, 2011 8:00PM

The topic of casinos has brought up a handful of awkward and politically golden moments. Just ask Gov. Pat Quinn. He has received a fair amount of political heat for his stance on the casino debate, and it looks like he's going to have to put up with a lot more snide comments to get anything accomplished.

At a public event on the southeast side of the city Friday, Gov. Quinn and Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the "largest open space project in the country," discussing and promoting all of the environmentally-friendly capabilities the southeast side has. In the midst of his speech, Gov. Quinn talked about how there had been eagles spotted in the neighborhood, and how the eagle is the national symbol of the United States.

Enter Illinois Senate President John Cullerton and his impeccable timing, via the Sun-Times:

“I don’t know if we can see any eagles here. But we definitely can see the Hammond casino. Which reminds me that you and I and the mayor have got to work on bringing a casino to Chicago so these Illinois gamblers spend their money in Illinois and not in Indiana,” Cullerton told Quinn as Emanuel laughed and the governor turned an embarrassed shade of pink.

Quinn handled the burn quite graciously, as he thanked Cullerton for his comments and moved on. Thanks to all of this casino talk, we're just thankful that we have a whole new year of political bickering to look forward to reporting.